Texas Mentor Teacher Academy
Supporting Texas teachers through the Mentor Program Allotment
As a TEA-approved provider, Learning Forward can support your MPA application and give your mentor teachers a proven, comprehensive program that meets the needs of mentor teachers and the beginning teachers they support.
Effective mentoring has significant impact on beginning teachers’ sense of efficacy, professional growth, and retention rates. Mentor teachers play a critical role in a district attracting, supporting, and retaining great teachers, and the mentor teacher role is an important component of the leadership pipeline for systems that want to support teachers and grow leaders.
As a Texas-based, approved provider for the Texas Education Agency’s Mentor Teacher Allotment, Learning Forward has a proven track record of providing research-based professional learning for mentors that improves their practice in building the efficacy of new teachers.
Through the MPA, the TEA is providing up to $100,000 in funding for Texas districts to implement a comprehensive professional learning program for mentor teachers.
Districts seeking a mentor training partner as part of their MPA applications must identify a provider from the Agency’s approved mentor programs on their applications.
Our program provides professional learning for mentor teachers to understand and develop skills in the five key areas of best mentorship practices as identified by the TEA:
- Developing effective mentoring partnerships with beginning teachers;
- Implementing coaching cycles that appropriately differentiate coaching for beginning teachers;
- Data-driven instruction that builds beginning teacher skills;
- Lesson planning to support beginning teachers in preparing aligned, research-based lessons;
- Establishing a supportive learning environment that maximize instructional time and creates a welcoming, safe and inclusive learning environment for all students.
How We Can Help
As a TEA-approved provider, we can help you:
- Complete the MPA Cycle 3 application process, including embedding the scope and sequence of our mentor program into your application;
- Ensure additional mentor and beginning teacher supports meets the requirements of the MPA application;
- Deliver training to your mentor teachers through our Texas Mentor Teacher Academy cohort, which will meet for eight, half-day virtual sessions from July 2022 through February 2023;
- Plan additional customized learning for mentors for Years 2 and 3 of MPA Cycle 3; and
- Identify and train a cadre of mentors to facilitate our Mentor Teacher Academy at the local level, and ingrain mentor teacher training into the culture of your district.
To learn more about our mentor program and how we can help you secure MPA funding to ensure every new teacher in your system has an effective mentor, contact Tom Manning, Senior Vice President of Professional Services, at tom.manning@learningforward.org.
